Eastern Railroad Discussion > CSX Q1 2019

Coal traffic up 7%, IM traffic down 5%, rev slightly up, earnings per share nearly a dime better and operating
ratio improved. That coal traffic does a lot for you (LOL).

Out

I haven’t tried to basic math on this. Questions though, how much tax savings are they seeing under trump? How much increase in revenue is due to coal and coal alone?

Posted from iPhone

The operating ratio is fewer trains and fewer employees, IM drop and coal increase are both a bit surprising.

Out

I once had a senior railroad executive (from NS) tell me that coal traffic is where the real money is...  He said intermodal has so many penalties it is risky.   
Now 20 years later, to CSX less intermodal and more coal seems to be good for the OR and a cash cow...

The railroads had to record an adjustment for the Trump tax law that cost them a bundle.

I'll leave it to others to describe the specifics, but the rails expected big future write offs for depreciation, etc. When their future tax rates were reduced, those future write offs became less valuable. So they had to write down some deferred tax elements.

You pay a lower rate, but some adjustments are worth less. Each rail will have a different result based on their own situation.

I think we discussed it at the time.

Posted from Android

With all the intermodal lane eliminations, I would expect intermodal to be down.  Some of my customers have converted to OTR in eliminated lanes.